Welcome to
a bolder view I'm Jim Winchester along with co-host Carl Castillo who'll be joining
us in just
a few minutes fell in Boulder is upon us and the usual busy schedule of events and
activities have already begun in the city this year some additional high profile
out of the ordinary events will bring the national spotlight to Boulder including
an upcoming Republican presidential candidate debate and
a visit from His Holiness the Dalai Lama What do these events mean to Boulder and
how will the city accommodate all the extra visitors Well these are just some of
the questions that the boulder Convention Visitors Bureau executive director
Marianne Mahoney will discuss with me
a little later on but first when we come back Karl Castillo brings us the
perspective from the host of these big events the University of Colorado Boulder
Stay with us.
My guest today is France
a straight vice chancellor for strategic relations at the University of Colorado
Francis thanks for joining us Oh my pleasure thank you for having me so Frances
people may know you from your former hat that you used to wear as the exactly
director of the boulder Economic Council and clearly you've been at university for
several years now and I'm going to add we're not counting we're not and we're not
going to be very happy years that you've been at the university and what I'd like
to talk about is what is so interesting about living in a city that has
a university it like the University of Colorado and for many of us certainly myself
included it is not just the flatter and it's not just the open space and you know
all the other things that the city has to offer but there's something very cool
about having
a university and I think about the conference of world affairs and and all these
that the debate on the ideas and the testing of those ideas and how it plays out in
so many ways I'd like to get your perspective on you know what what is it about
a university like Colorado that does that and what are some examples that come to
mind well I'll put on my old hat for economic days and tell you that when I was in
that role we looked at other university towns because we all share in kind of
a wonderful wealth that you have
a university right there that churning out great young people it's bringing
research to the community usually events those kinds of things so I just I just
have to go back to I think you recently did
a program on the history of Boulder and back in the day in the hundreds I guess
there was
a fight between us and Kenyon City as to who would actually get the university and
we duked it out with them rode on horseback over to the legislature overnight to
make sure that they knew the citizens that gathered up money in the city to provide
them with
a location to put the university and we want right Lou but. I think it has materially
shaped the city over the years both in terms. Businesses that have started other
see you little search that's come out but then there's just the wealth of stuff
that goes on I can't keep track of it so yeah I have communications and first put
out communications around that I cannot keep track of everything going on there
right so it really does provide not only an interesting intellectual fabric Yeah
but that was events and things going on so I could go off in any direction right
I'm going to let you yak that I know it's
a very broad topic but I just I know that again back to my own example I've
casually have thought maybe I could live somewhere else in Colorado it's also
a pretty area that has this that or that but it's that intellectual aspect of the
factors these serious distinguished speakers the Compton world and there's
a fest to Shakespeare fest for the Arts. All these things that are kind kind of
constantly forcing you to engage on the latest and greatest kind of thank you and
again it's awesome to qualify economically necessarily but I think
a lot of people in Boulder can in
a lot of ways more than me well so one of the things that we do is
a study every couple of years and rich while they can and Brian Lewandowsky who
many people are familiar with do those studies for us but the last time we looked
the university here in Boulder contributed over a billion dollars
a year to the state economy now that happens in a lot of ways yeah we have about
a two point eight billion dollars research enterprise that's going on any day of
the week and each year the researchers on the campus bring in another load of
financing for more continued research and that sort of adds to prior years so you
get
a multi-year Grant quite often that takes you for three years or five years or are
what have you and then you buy equipment and you hire people and you bring in grad
students and the trickles out and then really all it meant departments and you got
to eat and buy furniture or you know do whatever it is so. That's just the research
part of the house and then of course we've got the whole education part of the
house so there are almost thirty thousand students on the campus Yeah about five
thousand of those are graduate students and I asked her undergraduate it and I'm
thinking you know things trickle out in many ways I mean obviously you have spent
companies that are here because of the university and are taking ideas that were
tested at the university and actually monetize it and they can make
a profit out of them but that's also what I find have been in the city of Boulder
is that
a lot of public policies are direct result of people who are working in the field
of science and they say well this is what we need and we want to see it on the
ground in our city kind of in Great Expectations and we will say I don't want
anything less than the latest and greatest idea that that our science or whatever
it is that our education is suggesting we need right and I think one of the key
things about that Carl is that you know there are so many diverse points of view at
the university so you might have somebody. Who weighs in on one side of an issue
and somebody else who weighs on the other side from
a research standpoint right so it could be everything from the death penalty to
G.M.
Is to perfectly how we use you know renewable energy and bring it into the grid or
any of that kind of stuff how we employ new technologies as
a human race how we observe the planet all of those things are things that we're
thinking about as
a local level in terms of how do we engage with those things make our community
a better place and we have researchers on all sides of the issue who are interested
in in gauging and bringing their information you know forward right so another
example might be in
a flood ICS So we just announced that we are working on forming
a governance center for athletics because it's an area of research that our
researchers can look into how do athletics departments and. Collegiate level govern
themselves and what about all these things about are the athletes employees or not
employees and how does that affect scholarships and actually getting the students
their education right and so there's
a lot of complicated things in that self governance it's
a perfectly fair study Yes yeah and worrying ourselves out while we're at it right
at the same time well you know one thing I certainly been seen living in Boulder
for
a while now is that there is so much involvement that that the city is part of the
national and international conversation at
a level that you want to expect given our population and we're increasingly part of
these conversation like the mayor was just in the Vatican for the event on climate
change and human trafficking and then he'll be going to represent the city at the
at the United Nations Cup twenty one discussion on climate change and that this
year these are large city types of events and very much the exception that boulder
you know is a smaller city is part of it and there's obviously
a connection to the university and then we have the university bring in the Dalai
Lama and October we have the Republican national debate I mean to me these are
perfect examples of. The synergy between organizations and I make sure the border
is
a. The player really at Tara of the conversation and influential way well I think you're
hitting on a key point one of the things that
a lot of people don't realize is that the University of Colorado Boulder was ranked
last year fifteenth in the world for the citations of our scientists and that means
when does somebody actually go and look at your research and make use of it and say
this researcher who we respect found these results we're going to rely upon that as
we build out further theories or that sort of thing right so that you know the
people that are in that crowd are like Berkeley or Harvard or Stanford or Michigan
you know so that's the crowd that the university here runs with and
a lot of people I don't think realize that so we have. Five Nobel laureates I
think eight MacArthur geniuses we have people serving in incredible roles in the
White House or leading NASA centers or other things that are guiding national and
international policy. Throughout the campus it's really fascinating Jane
Goodall is another one who's coming to the campus soon for our fiftieth Annual
Gammel lecture and she will be providing that lecture and meeting with students her
Roots and Shoots groups here right locally and although she's not she didn't
originate from C.U.
Boulder or from the city of Boulder she's connected to
a lot of people here it's an interesting place for her to come for you know
researchers that are doing the same kind of thing and to give that kind of lecture
Yeah so people like that are attracted to coming to the city of Boulder because we
are an interesting combination of the university and the fascinating city in the
rightful location doesn't get much better we're going to go because that it's it's
not just this and so we're the spread of has the students but it benefits the whole
community when you have these people come to speak in very direct ways in that
they're allowed to come so but talk about the Republican national debate
a very interesting significative that of course it's surprising. You know we as
a city and as
a university are often said to be liberal and you heard after the first time ever
to write. In
a so you know whether that's true or not of course there's some truth to it and
it's interesting to dissect you know why that may be in the university's
relationship to it but I'm sure what your thoughts are about how the Republican
National Republican national debate at the university what that we just said at why
is that significant for the university for both well I think it adds
a lot in the sense that the fact that they decided to pick this location one is
obviously for its beauty and the town that we've got here and for the university is
a top ranked university is part of the Pac twelve and it's kind of
a perfect setting let's put the Republican national debate there how interesting is
that well it also provides
a really interesting close up look for our campus and community into the Republican
debates and it's going to be quite
a show so when they had it in Cincinnati they had over five thousand journalists
request wild credential as they only accommodated five hundred we think maybe we
can squash in four hundred lots of. International eyes from
Japan and Europe and other places who are just fascinated with our brand of
politics in America. But we're also going to have
a lot of things going on on campus so some of the c N.B.C.
Producers and the television executives are going to come into classes and speak to
our students we're going to hold some open forums to talk about the elections how
are they working what are the issues being debated what are the issues not being
debated and how all this works and how behind the scenes do you put one of these on
it's
a huge undertaking so we have that many candidates right so we're going to have students
volunteering to stand in those the candidates while they're setting up so they can
try to interest figure that out they are going to limit the tickets
a lot because they do well they have so many candidates are going to have to
accommodate and just the logistics of running that and having so many cameras tie
into so much media there's not
a lot of space I also decide I say that I think it's interesting and
a positive thing but the university is doing its part to make sure that there is
that diversity of political thought I mean you may not agree with the Republicans
and there's obviously a lot who don't as
a radio group or the Democrats but nobody can argue that part of keeping us fresh
in our toes is having that debate and you know this is perfectly legal and it's
a goal that we have at the university is to make sure that we offer those
opportunities for debate we have
a scholar in conservative thought and policy but we're sort of broadening our
center for Western Civilization thought in policy to make it a broader thing in
a vital more visiting scholars and so we can put more community events on so you
can have somebody with completely opposing views right resenting you know
a subject and have our students exposed to that too and able to engage in the kind
of lively debate we really like that idea that we should be pushing that envelope
of always questioning and being really
a diverse community from all aspects so right you know the way you think or where
you come from or your income level or your gender or your you know raises all of
those things we would like to invite to the camp its crew. Recalled to maintaining
our reputation as
a hotbed for innovation whether that's science or not is politics so perfect well
thank you so much rats we're out of time but I want to thank you and Carl really
appreciate you take your time and we appreciate the partnership with the city you
know I think we are unique in the community in that regard many communities don't
have
a close relationship with their university or the university with the city they're
at loggerheads all the time so we really appreciate the city and the relationship
that absolutely and I see there as well Great well thank you Fred thank you we've
been speaking with Francis Draper from the university about how the university
makes Boulder such an interesting place to look Stay with us we'll be back in
a moment with Jim Winchester who continue this conversation with Marianne Mahoney
from the Boulder convention's investors bureau.
Well welcome back to older view we just heard from the University of Colorado
Boulder on the interesting political social and cultural nature of some of the
bigger events that are coming to Boulder this fall now we focus
a little bit more on the practical aspects of Boulder hosting
a presidential primary debates and the visit of
a world religious leader joining us today is Mary and the Holy good director of the
boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau thanks for joining us Oh my pleasure Well
I'll tell you just
a quick glance at all the events going on this fall it's going to be pretty busy it
is and it's on top of
a very very busy season already so I think we're going to equate it to the student
move in week of August where the parents were coming in extending out just
extending on for about two and a half weeks so it's a pretty exciting time and
a great sunlight in Boulder so what do we see in what does this mean with these
events and I guess first of all why don't you kind of go through some of the events
that are coming in what does that mean as far as an impact on the community here
well I think quite often the larger events like the Republican debate and Dalai
Lama is really focused on
a couple busy days of the week but we also have the Tech Stars founder con that's
coming early in between those two events we've got The Beekeeper's Association
coming in we've got a Burgundy wine festival coming so it's
a very very busy month of
a lot of offerings so how that impacts people in Boulder is they may see
a few more people in the restaurants I think that that's where they see people and
that can't hurt obviously anytime you get outside money outside people coming into
Boulder spending money it's great for the local economy well it's great for the
local economy and then they decide they've got
a flavor from Boulder and they probably come back and probably come back on
vacation so that's the long term effect of this exposure let's talk about an event
that will specifically have. A huge spotlight on Boulder obviously the presidential
primary for the Republicans debate coming in October yes the spotlight for the
entire nation will be on the University of Colorado Boulder we just heard
a little while ago in the earlier segment as to kind of why they've reached out to
a Republican constituency what does this do in terms of tourism and maybe opening
up some minds and some perceptions that people had about Boulder being this town
that only welcomes very progressive thinking well and I think that there might be
those press preconceived ideas about Baltar and this will give because there's
three hundred journalists in town over this this debate time frame so it will be an
offering to sell Balder in a different showcase to
a different audience that may open up that conversation what we have created here
is a really unique active lifestyle
a sophisticated restaurant same active downtown all of those things are perceptions
that people may have been close to when I pass go let me ask you this what was your
first reaction when you heard Republican debate coming to the University of
Colorado Bill I said yes. We had we had
a big campaign in Denver during the first election of Barack Obama and the
Democratic convention in Denver sure and the whole time in Boulder we were saying
by would be great if the Republicans came so even with the Republican bid for the
convention we were very very excited but to have this in our town is
a great showcase for Boulder. A campus
a college campus in general does tend by stereotype to be very progressive very
liberal any concerns about students being overly vocal in not necessarily welcoming
Republicans in this whole scenes of older. Or is that not necessarily concerned
students not so much I think that they're still in that formation of how they think
and feel I think we will see
a really vol call public in student groups coming out which will be really good
just to showcase but I think also some of our citizens might get involved in those
conversations too and be part of kind of being part of the crowd I mean so many
people want tickets to go to this this great opportunity they want to have that
opportunity but again everybody is very very curious to to this conversation with
just equally How does
a city the size of Boulder handle like you mentioned three hundred journalists
a lot of T.V.
Cameras the spotlight essentially not only on this debate but there's bound to be
stories that will go
a little bit further and talk about the actual atmosphere in Boulder and some of
the challenges that we have how do you comedy all those folks in terms of logistics
traffic we talk about hotels ino it in all the above so we try to do pre-planning
so in meeting with university Colorado Boulder What lessons did they learn from
when they went to play flint for the first of it OK so we learned from their VESA
pre-planning of how we can assist those journalists and advance to help them find
hotel accommodations so working with see you working with the Republican National
Committee getting kind of that media advisory Here's some information you may need
ahead of time. However everybody when you're a journalist you don't need
a press pass you are you have a press pass you don't necessarily need
a film permit you can film anywhere because you're
a journalist there so that takes the ground out of
a little bit of control that we sometimes would like to have to really how can we
accommodate as best as possible so it's all hands on deck all hands on deck it will
be a one night event but obviously it will last
a couple days can you compare this relatively to say like
a football game that it's not
a fair comparison it's not quite it's more like that so you move in where the
parents come in they're staying they're not quite ready to give up their child once
they move them into the dorm so they're staying another day or so so they're
staying in hotels where not all the hotels are fall every football weekend. The
the. Crew that's coming to film the debate they'll move in
a week ahead of time to do all their logistics and then there's the morning show
after so you know all of the what did they learn last night will be recap the
following morning for all the morning shows so we'll see this as
a multi day week of and. Let's move along
a little bit to some of these other special events right we have the regular
routine here in Boulder that folks are used to in the full brightness of the fall
and many other different events you mention text or. Come right back on right
explain a little bit about that in when that is and what makes this such
a unique. Way to promote Boulder Well Tech Stars was started in Boulder and many
people that have been around kind of know how vibrant that community is that Tech
Stars rots. In to live in our community to learn from the brightest and the
best and now they have I believe fifteen tech star cities and they're bringing all
of those smart business people that have been through Tech Stars into our community
about six hundred attendees so that's
a large conference for Boulder but also the vibrant sea of these start up people
with the energy that they have. Actually come back to base which is Boulder
Colorado. Eating in the restaurants and special events and really collaborating
with one another so great what. Old are right now the fact that we are.
Hazing if you will of
a lot of startups and tech stars kind of feeds right into that image and how
beneficial was that working well people come through text arse or other. They've
been on either coast possibly to take
a little startup or create something new and then it's Boulder is
a petri dish they almost get to experiment with a lot of collaboration and
a lot of support so you know people move out of the Mountain View area Palo Alto
area or outside Boston and move into
a very small community that they get to know people pretty quickly and the sense of
collaboration versus competition has been touted of why Boulder is so exciting to
do business there is Boulder reputation of becoming the next Palo Alto are we
already there well I think the tech people will tell you that they are there I
don't know we have to talk to our friends at the Economic Council as far as the
venture capital if we're matching what's happening in Palo Alto we're probably
lagging in that area but it's
a compliment to the aerospace engineer at the cleantech and community they natural
and organic skum unity that we already have the active lifestyle manufacturers I
mean it's it's
a pretty dynamic addition to what we have. Moving on to another event which is
already gotten
a lot of headlines I believe is already sold out the Dalai Lama visits. What what
again was the reaction when you heard that this was coming and how unique of an
opportunity is this once again to position Boulder as this place that has all these
diverse events I think it's
a great compliment to our community being as forward
thinking as Boulder is sometimes it seems like we're not
a religious community but we're very spiritual community and I think bringing Dalai
Lama who the campus really Marius that marries that to our community it
serves
a broader purpose. Lomis been close before these been here awhile before but
again how that compliments the people in Boulder to connect back to
spirituality and again in the world why for
a people I'd never thought about Boulder Colorado I met in that spiritual world
one quick final question here we have just about
a minute left. What are potential. All of this attention is is it
a concern that we're growing too quickly I mean we hear that sometimes in the
community what what are some some fallbacks or some just issues that you must be
very careful about when we have
a lot of these folks coming I think that traffic is
a concern for people. Three hundred people we handle three hundred people groups
every week when our community death notices they're meeting with in
a hotel eating in our restaurants downtown so the three hundred journalists don't
concern me I think it's the perception of magnifying in around
a specific of that we have. I'd
a few more people visiting football weekend than we will have around the Republican
convention or around course of that center when the Dalai Lama's here but I can I
think see you will do the outstanding job and lay in all of that as they always do
all right Marian thank you so much for joining us and that wraps up this edition of
a bolder view remember lots of activity coming this fall to the city of Boulder now
for an odd demand stream of this show and to see all past
a bolder view programs please visit Boulder Channel eight dot com Our thanks to
Marion Mahoney from the Convention and Visitors Bureau into vice chancellor Francis
Draper from C.U.
Boulder on behalf of Carl Castillo I'm Jim Winchester with the city of Boulder.